See what a blend of Android 16 and Chrome OS looks like in this Google Aluminium OS leak

Google’s plans to replace ChromeOS with a new operating system aren’t particularly new — but we haven’t seen any images of it. Until today.

Thanks to a bug report on the Chromium Issue Tracker, we’ve been treated to leaked videos of the nascent operating system (via PC World). Known as Aluminium OS, this shiny new system shows a lot of influence from Android 16, ChromeOS, and even MacOS.

Aluminium OS includes a big status bar, Play Store apps, and multi-screen apps

This is our first look at what Google has for us in the future, and the desktop operating system clearly wears its influences on its sleeves.

What immediately stand out are the icons on the top-right, which echo Android 16‘s design, and the app strip at the bottom of the screen. The app strip is very reminiscent of MacOS or ChromeOS, but is slightly taller than either of those examples of ChromeOS and Android 16, though it does look very similar to the existing Android 16 desktop mode.

We see the Google Play Store opening, showing the apps on offer, and we also see some Chrome Extensions too, hinting that Aluminium OS will combine these two very powerful features.

The coding visible in the video also shows that Google considers Aluminium OS, despite the name, an offshoot of Android. In certain parts of the video, it can be clearly seen that the OS is referred to as “Android 16”. Whether this continues to be the case later into development remains to be seen.

The video was shot on an HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 Chromebook running a 12th Gen Intel Core (AlderLake-U) processor, so Aluminium OS clearly still shares enough of its DNA with ChromeOS to be capable of running on a Chromebook. Hopefully, that means we could see older Chromebooks updated to run Aluminium when it finally releases.

Though exactly when that release will be isn’t known. Google intends for Aluminium OS to be a long-term replacement for ChromeOS, and it likely wants to make sure everything is right before it rolls it out fully. However, judging on the state of the operating system as seen in this video, that could be sooner, rather than later.

ChromeOS fans also need not worry, as Google has promised to continue supporting ChromeOS for a little while after Aluminium OS comes out.